– The upside of a bionic neck appears to be the ability to fly from one side of the planet to the other without much bother. Saturday morning Denver Bronco’s quarterback Peyton Manning woke up in Germany for the last stop of a USO tour that took him to Italy and Afghanistan and then ended the day in Kansas City to accept his seventh NFL 101 award for the AFC Offensive Player of the Year. Also honored with NFL 101 awards were Adrian Peterson, J.J. Watt, Aldon Smith, Peter Carroll, Chuck Pagano and Bruce Arians. No word if the honorary trophy for “NFL Fan Who Could Name What The NFL 101 Awards Are” was awarded this year, a category which had a recipient of the prestigious award since 1997.

– On the USO tour with Manning were Austin Collie, Vincent Jackson, Curt Shilling (presumably still doing image rehab after the whole 38 Studios debacle), a couple of third and fifth place runners-up from “American Idol” and two members of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad who unfortunately had to dance to AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” as sung by the third and fifth place runners-up from “American Idol” on stage. We can’t get high-profile pop singers on USO tours these days? For shame, liberal Hollywood. For shame. Bob Hope is spinning in his grave under the Burbank Bob Hope Airport at this poor showing. (While I know I am wrong, in my mind USO tours all look like this in my mind.)

– Lauren Silberman, the first woman to tryout for the NFL, aggravated a right quadricep injury and was done after two kick attempts at the regional combine in New Jersey on Sunday. Hopefully in a few years we’ll see a few of the girls who compete in the punt, pass and kick competition give it shot someday, if only to fulfill the promise of Ashley from “NFL Rush Zone” and be on equal footing on the field.

– Keith Olbermann wants to return to ESPN and the New York Times is on it. Olbermann will forever be linked to Super Bowl XXX in my mind because in the weeks before the eventual Cowboys-Steelers matchup, he joked on SportsCenter about what was so important about January 28th since it was the day after his birthday. I, of course, sent him a birthday card because I was young and stupid and didn’t know he was busy terrorizing his coworkers at the WWL at the time. Still, it’s been seventeen years and I still haven’t heard back from him. Is it really that time consuming to write a thank-you note?

Wished we could’ve finished the job!!thanks for the opportunity an good luck in the future 9ers

– Wide receiver Randy Moss seems to have made peace with the fact the San Francisco 49ers will not invite him back for the 2013 season and has expressed to friends that he would like the shot to play on a Super Bowl contender come September. If the right team doesn’t come knocking, the always controversial Moss is ready to retire for a second time according to former teammates. Retire or go to the Super Bowl. That’s a heck of a curve to play on, Mr. No Middle Ground Moss. Good luck on returning to the Patriots or getting NFL 101 Award Winner Peyton Manning to take a chance on you, if the current Vegas odds are to be believed.